Star of an Apple
by Chubby Bunny the III
Summary: This is a wonderful but sad love story. Their meeting was a stroke of chance and their love was written in their destinies but does that mean that there down fall was tied with fate? Set in the time before the Abyss was opened but will lead up to it.


Apple on the Tree

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Disclaimer: I own nothing in this fanficiton

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It had been a hot summer day when Alice first met him. The sun had shined it's fury down on the unsuspecting people. And the humidity was so great she feared that her dress would soon be glued to her skin for all eternity till winter finally came. The blessing of wind shifting through the trees was a pleasant surprised to Alice as she started walking across the land.

She enjoyed how the grass tickled the soles of her feet just before she crushed them into an abnormal form. Alice had never really enjoyed the season of summer all the walking she was expected to do never sat well with her. But winter was a bore as well with all the reading that she was forced to do. She rather liked the neutral season of fall she enjoyed all the colors and loved to kick up all the mismatched colors.

But at the moment she was stuck with summer and all the visitors that came with it. Today it was a man named Jack and his little brother Oz. Father had told her that Jack had come today to discuss a bridge that had collapsed near a canal. She was in no way interested in the blond hair green eyed visitor. His hair was far too long and his smile just a little too bright. But she wasn't a dark girl that had a cloud looming over her so she went over and greeted the visitor; she rather liked him after getting to know him.

But as the sun got higher and warmer she was practically pushed out of her manor and out into that blistering sun. With the pretence that she should have more sun and that it was rather healthy at such an age. But she had a feeling that her father and Jack just wanted to talk about other things. She did not mind she would have loved to go upstairs to play with her numerous dolls and her sweet black cat, but the best excuse the older men could come up was to go outside.

And so here she was standing in front of the entrance to the gardens. She did love the gardens and the huge variety of colors and smells they offered to her. But more than that she loved the fuzzy and soft feeling she got from touching a blossomed flower petal. She loved tracing the crisscrossed veins that ran through the brightly colored leaf. But that was not what she had planned for today.

If there was only one thing that she enjoyed about summer it was the juicy round red objects that clung to a certain tree in the garden. She had no idea how such a tree had gotten into the exotic gardens of her family, but she did not mind. She enjoyed sinking her teeth into it and ripping a huge chunk of the ripe red colored skin. She even liked the way the sticky clear blood streamed to the tip of her chin in sight of its escape before she darted her tongue out and swooped it back up into the captivity of her mouth. And with this in mind Alice started to hum a familiar tune, in sight of the bend that would bring in sight her desire.

It had never crossed her mind where Jack's younger brother was. She must confess she had completely forgotten that there was even someone else that had been visiting. After all it had been only Jack that had greeted her in the pallor. Nothing overly extravert happened when she turned that bend. But she did freeze at the sight of a young man resting beneath her favorite tree.

She knew it was not one of the many servants that bustled along her home. Although she did not know everyone in the manor she did however, know how to spot someone of the same breeding of herself. After all her mother had drilled it into her since the day she had made friends with Abigail, a daughter of the cook. But this man was no servant; even with him sitting under the cooling shade of her tree she could tell that this was true.

His clothes were well tailored and obviously expensive. His shoulders were straight and his spine never once bended down. His legs were stretched out in front of him and his delicate aristocrat fingers were holding a rather heavy book in front of his face, obstructing his face from her view. But his golden messy hair, a shade darker than the man Jacks', was swaying with the breeze and then sat still as the wind finally went off to bother some other blessed fool.

She took a step closer and then stopped herself. She stood there looking at the man, which had to be around her age, as he flipped slowly through the book not even bothering to raise his head and look over at her. When she realized that she was admiring his hair, hands, and practically leaning forward just to get a glimpse of his eyes she jerked back and made way to leave the man in the solitude that he hadn't even realized had been broken.

Perhaps what had happened next was fate, destiny, or maybe even a simple case of chance. But none the less it happened, regardless of the forces behind it. And the next thing Alice knew she was being completely and utterly ensnared by the glittering emerald eyes that had jerked to look over at her. She barley registered the tap of something rolling to a rest at the ends of her feet, so distracted was she by the man whose lips had parted to from a small "O".

His high cheekbones complimented his coloring between a pale white and a slight tan. His nose was not to long or to big but fit in the center of his face. But none of these grabbed her attention, not even the lips that glistened with moisture, no the only thing that pulled her in at this moment was his eyes. They were perfectly shaped and rested in just the right place for his face. But the color was absolutely brilliant a light shade of green that she had no way of comparing to anything she had ever seen. When she finally realized that she had been staring she snapped her eyes away and tried to stand just a little straighter.

"Hello, I'm Alice." She said surprised when her voice neither shacked nor spluttered. She waited for him to give his name but when he remained quite so did she. Until she could no longer take it, she couldn't help it she wanted to know how his voice sounded. "And you are?"

She watched as the man blinked his eyes and then he smiled. She was surprised when her heart started to pound; after all it hadn't done that since she had gotten stuck on the cracking ice last winter. But for some reason this pounding was much more pleasant than that time.

"I'm Oz Vessalius," was the answer he supplied to her. And she smiled her thanks at knowing the name of the person who had her full attention. She took a chance to look down on the memory of something hitting her milky white slippers. She saw the object that had once been her reason for entering this part of the garden. She leaned over and gently picked up the apple before her and then straightening up she started to walk over to the boy who was still staring over at her.

She folded her hands behind her back and leaned down from the waist until her face was to the side of his. She tilted her head to the left and smiled at Oz. "Well, hello Oz what are you doing here?"

Oz looked a little taken back at how close her face was to his but he did not comment and instead let out another of his brilliant smiles. And she thanked her lucky stars for the heat, for the first time today, thinking that maybe he would think the red was from the humidity and dryness of the weather instead of her beating heart and unwavering fascination with him.

"My brother is talking with Glen inside and I'd rather be out in the sun than closed off in some room." He cheerfully explained as he finally put the book down, opened on his lap with the spine facing upward, sensing that she wanted to talk to him and not the book. "What about you?"

Alice grinned as she finally dropped to her knees and sat down next to him with her legs folded beneath her. "I live here, and this happens to be my favorite tree and so I decided to visit it and found you instead."

"Favorite tree," Oz mumbled as he looked up at the tree. The leaves were blowing in the direction of the breeze that had started up once again. And the tree wasn't as tall as some of the trees that ran along the gardens "I don't see anything abnormally wonderful about this tree."

Alice giggled at him before she jumped to her feet. She rather enjoyed talking to this boy, even though they had only said a few sentences to each other. Perhaps it was the kindness that was shining through those wonderful eyes. Either way Alice had come to the realization that she trusted this man. "The reason is quite simple."

And with that Alice grabbed a hold of a branch and pulled herself on top of it. She did this a few more times until she was pretty high up. She stuck her head out of the branches and beamed down at Oz, who was now standing on the ground looking up at her with a carful eye, ready to catch her at any moment. Seeing her brown haired head pop out of the lush green branches Oz opened his mouth to grab her attention. "So the tree is a good place to break your neck that hardly seems special at all."

Alice recognizing that he was trying to goad her down ignored his taunt and grabbed a hold of two luscious red fruits. She made her decent back down until she was only a few branches away from the welcoming grass. She liked spring so much better when it was glistening with little droplets of dew.

But now she just stopped and grinned down at Oz. "Catch," she called out right before she threw both things done into Oz's direction. She waited until he looked back up and then she jumped out of the branch herself. Forcing Oz to stretch out his arms and grab a hold of her.

"What are you crazy?" Oz asked as he held her by the waist and looked into her laughing eyes with bemused, frightened, and laughing eyes of his own. She waited until her toes touched the ground before she smiled up at him.

"I jumped of course. But this tree is special because it's a host to my favorite fruit." She watched as Oz's gaze dropped down to the grass before he bent down and picked up the fruit she had thrown just a few second ago. "An apple?"

"Yep, it's an apple there the best during this season." Alice explained as she bent down and picked up her other apple. "Why, what's your favorite fruit?" Alice smiled in answer to the laugh that spiraled all around her. It was the brightest thing in her life.

"This has to be one of the most interesting conversations I've ever had." Oz replied as he leaned forward himself. She could tell that he was finally letting loose and treating her as if they had been friends for a long time just as she had been doing all along. "But I like sweets way more than fruit."

Alice nodded her head to signal that she understood him very well. "Yes, there's always something better than fruit, I love meat!"

"Meat, you know," Oz lowered his voice considerably and leaned forward after looking that way and this way. "That's not something that a lady should admit you have to be delicate you know?"

Alice grinned at the face that was now very close, she liked it better than craning her neck upwards to speak to him. "Oh, that's quite alright I enjoy climbing trees, fishing in the pond, and most of all I love eating meat. I'm afraid that I don't really care what society dictates. I have a lot of fun just being what I myself want to be. And father doesn't seem to mind in the slightest."

Oz nodded his head and straightened up to his full height once again. "That's fine I enjoy talking to you just the way you are now." Oz was blessed with a radiant smile, making his breath catch before he regained control of his senses once again, for his praise.

Alice glanced over at the tree that they had been sitting under before returning her gaze over to Oz who was now rubbing the apple against his white shirt, as if he was trying to buff the apple with a shiny sheen. "So what are you reading? It looks to be a rather long book."

"I'm reading about the abyss." Oz answered as he now shifted the apple to one hand and than to the other.

"The prison? Hmm, father talks about that place a lot, almost obsessively." Alice told him tapping her finger against her chin as her thoughts were consumed with her father pouring over books shifting through facts and fiction mumbling about a woman named Lacie. But she never asked why he was so interested in the prison because she feared the answer.

"Really, I have to study it because my Uncle Oscar assigned it for my studies. He says that my sister Ada will have to study the same thing when she grows, but I can never tell how truthful he is."

Alice tilted her head to consider this answer. "I've never had to study the prison. I really only have math, history, science, astronomy, geography, and manner teachings. Do you have these classes too?"

"Unfortunately I do." Oz answered with a sigh of regret.

Alice smiled up at him happy to see that he was comfortable showing off his emotions. "I rather like astronomy, it's my favorite class."

"I like math," Oz answered her unasked question.

Alice nodded her head in understanding before noticing that he had not yet taken a bite out of the apple that he now turned within his hand. "Oz you should eat the apple it tastes really good, I promise."

At Alice's constant persuasion Oz brought the apple to his mouth and bit into the apple. She watched as his eyes widened as the first of the juice flooded his mouth sinking his taste buds in sweet a sweet flavor. "It is rather good."

"Hehe told you so." Alice taunted as she bit into her own apple, just as the first call for Oz drifted on the wind. She quickly swallowed the apple and turned to look in the direction of the voice. "It seems that their calling you from the house, I suppose it's time to say good bye…until next time."

Oz took a hold of her hand and bowed before he lifted himself up again. "Yes it was a great surprise to make a friend such as yourself. I hope that we can see each other again."

Alice smiled softly as Oz drifted back into what was considered polite in society today. She only nodded her head as he walked back to the tree and picked up his book and than he walked past her, but not before he grinned over at her. Making her heart stutter before it picked up beating far more rapidly than was normal.

"There's one thing I have to ask you Alice before I go." Oz said as he stopped right before he walked behind the bend, he continued before she could ask what it was. "Why did you climb up the tree instead of eating the apple that had fallen on my head?"

Alice regarded him silently for a few seconds, with the juice of the apple rolling down her chin and swiftly making its way to her neck. And then she smiled at Oz in a special way. A way that said she knew something that he didn't, something that she dared him to figure out. "Sorry Oz but that's a secret."

She watched as Oz's mouth opened so that he could rebuke her statement. But just as he was about to they heard the voice once again calling his name. Oz winced then bowed to Alice. "Very well, than I trust you will tell me next time." And with that Alice watched at the blond bob of hair disappeared.

She smiled after him and when she could no longer hear the crunching of his fading footsteps she turned to look over at the apple that was sitting undisturbed where she had sat next to Oz. "I didn't eat the apple because it's a special apple." Alice whispered to her special tree and to the wind that was now softly carrying her hair out behind her. "It's an apple of fate that has fallen from my very special apple tree."

And so Alice met Oz, and Oz met Alice. The beginning of a wonderful but sad love story commenced. There meeting was a stroke of chance and there love was written in their destinies but does that mean that there down fall was tied with fate? Perhaps the only way you can truly know the answer is by sifting through my weathered pages and discovering the answer for yourself.

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A/N: So this is my first story that does not take place in its respective home world. A.K.A. This story did not take place in the current time zone of Pandora hearts. It's actually taking place a few years before Glen opens the Abyss. And you'll see the conspiracy behind that happening along with the story. There are changes in the timeline, like Oz being alive and other things that will happen. This started out as an oneshot and then became a two shot and now it's become a story!

I know the characters are OOC right now but don't worry they will grow into the characters we love from the manga and anime.

Also I got the idea for this story from this MMV on youtube. Here's the link: .com/watch?v=JIkMe1oIq_k

So review and tell me what you think!


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